SpaceNews Editor-in-Chief Brian Berger and SpaceNews Staff Writer Caleb Henry were joined by a panel of space industry analysts to explore these questions and more during a live webinar recorded April 7.

U.S. Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, the winner of SpaceNews' 2018 military space Government Leader of the Year award, said as the Trump administration moves forward with plans to create a new military branch for space — an effort she supports — the Air Force is keeping focused on the space mission.

Wilson sat down with SpaceNews at the recent Space Symposium in Colorado Springs to discuss the ongoing reorganization of the Space and Missile Systems Center, space investment priorities and her plans to secure congressional support for budgets and management reforms.

“We are heavily dependent on space, and our adversaries know it. In any future conflict, space will be contested,” Heather Wilson, who was sworn in last month as the 24th secretary of the U.S. Air Force, told a Capitol Hill audience June 16.

When you announce a 42-engine intergalactic spaceship that you intend to name Heart of Gold in homage to Douglas Adams' "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," you deserve to be subjected to a little Vogon poetry from the audience.

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell, speaking Sept. 13 at the World Satellite Business Week Conference in Paris, said Falcon 9 could return to flight this year, although SpaceX has yet to determine what caused the Sept. 1 explosion.

In the last nine months, the Pentagon has overhauled its space governance structure, studied how to best reclassify some of its most secretive satellite programs and kicked off a the new process for evaluating next-generation satellite programs.